North Dakota Senators John Hoeven and Heidi Heitkamp are not letting the latest attempt to derail the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline go unnoticed.

The Obama administration Wednesday threatened to further delay the critical infrastructure project by ordering the Department of the Army to publish a Notice of Intent to require an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in the Federal Register. A move that sidesteps the professionals at the Army Corps of Engineers who have already concluded that the project will result in no significant impacts. In fact, the career civil servants at the Army Corps actually recommended that the easement be approved, but were silenced in the face of politics.

Hoeven, a republican, criticized the move, saying it amounted to changing the rules in the middle of a pre-established process. “The company has complied with all federal and state requirements, and should now be allowed to complete the project,” he said in a statement. “Since the current administration will not issue the final easement, the Trump administration should approve it without delay.”

He added that adjustments to the permitting process could be considered going forward, but should not be applied retroactively to a project that has already received approval. “Pipelines like the Dakota Access Pipeline can be built safely and protect both the tribe and everyone living downstream,” he said. “A new EIS will impose months, and perhaps years, of additional difficulty on the people who live and work in the pipeline area.”

Across the aisle, Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp echoed Hoeven, saying that the administration’s “legally unprecedented” effort would only promote continued division and delay. “Removing decision-making from the U.S. Army Corps District Office and looking at an issue not properly before the Corps does not provide the certainty, or the security North Dakotans need or that the protesters are seeking,” she said.

“Whether you agree with this position or not, President-elect Trump has not minced words about his support for the project, or his intent to take quick action on the issue, and the outgoing Administration knows that this move only stand to further deepen the divides in our state.”

It should not go unnoticed that, even in a state of political polarization, democrats and republicans agree that construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline should be completed without further delay.

The Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now is blasting the Obama Administration for requesting an Environmental Impact Statement on the Dakota Access Pipeline, which could further slow completion of the project.

Environmental activists and pipeline protesters have been pushing a mailing blitz to demand that the Army Corps of Engineers complete the impact study. A recent tweet indicates that Obama will force the issue.

The MAIN Coalition represents labor, business and ag interests, and has promoted the controversial pipeline project. Spokesperson Craig Stevens, in a statement sent to the Pilot-Tribune, said Obama’s action at the end of his presidency is inappropriate.

MAIN Coalition spokesman Craig Stevens issued the following statement following news that the Obama administration has sent the Federal Register a Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement on the Dakota Access Pipeline:

“The Coalition certainly believes that the Trump Administration, the courts, and the public will recognize this latest political stunt for what it is – a flailing attempt for relevance. It’s unfortunate that the outgoing administration would try to hamstring the professionals at the Army Corps of Engineers who worked diligently for years to ensure the Dakota Access Pipeline was sited and constructed in the environmentally and culturally sensitive manner.

“We remain optimistic that the incoming Trump Administration will soon issue the final easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline and also demonstrate a willingness to support American infrastructure projects and the American jobs that go along with them.

“Thankfully for the hard-working men and women across the country desperate for a change, hope is finally on the horizon. Soon we will have a federal government that works for the people – not one that obstructs growth, entrepreneurship, and ingenuity.”

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, who took office last month in the height of tensions surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline, said he believed the line would eventually be built and asked opponents to clean their protest camp before spring floodwaters create a potential ecological disaster.

A centrist Republican with no prior political experience, Burgum was elected in a landslide on a platform of streamlining government and improving relations across the state. Burgum built a successful software business before selling it to Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) in 2001.

Burgum told Reuters that approval of the pipeline appeared to be a foregone conclusion once Donald Trump moved into the White House.

“I expect the world’s going to change dramatically on that day relative to finding resolution on this issue,” Burgum said in an interview. “I would expect that (Energy Transfer Partners (ETP.N)) will get its easement and it will go through.”

Anyone surprised by Barack Obama’s last-minute decision to pass on the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline hasn’t been paying attention. Going to war, even with foes of fossil fuels, has rarely appealed to the man who prefers to lead from behind. Rather than provoke the wrath of environmentalists so late in the game, Mr. Obama is determined to punt and run out the clock. It will fall to Donald Trump to take on those who forced the president to take a knee. Once he takes office, the new president must not duck.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has balked at issuing a final permit enabling builders of the pipeline to bore beneath North Dakota’s Lake Oahe to finish the $3.8 billion project. The 1,134-mile pipeline, connecting the North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields to storage tanks in Illinois, has triggered protests by members of the Standing Rock Sioux who contend the pipeline would despoil their ancestral homeland and threaten their water supply. Their concerns appear to be exaggerated; the pipeline would pass no closer than to a half-mile of tribal property. Their home “where the buffalo roam” would remain untouched.

News

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Kevin Cramer said Friday he thinks the Trump administration will act swiftly to resume and complete construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. On a Fargo radio show Friday morning, Creamer said he expects the Environmental Impact Study, granted earlier this week under the Obama administration, will be rescinded, possibly as soon […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Kevin Cramer said Friday he thinks the Trump administration will act swiftly to resume and complete construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. On a Fargo radio show Friday morning, Creamer said he expects the Environmental Impact Study, granted earlier this week under the Obama administration, will be rescinded, possibly as soon […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Kevin Cramer said Friday he thinks the Trump administration will act swiftly to resume and complete construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. On a Fargo radio show Friday morning, Creamer said he expects the Environmental Impact Study, granted earlier this week under the Obama administration, will be rescinded, possibly as soon […]